Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Bridges

So when I found out that Matthew Sweet was working with and producing a group of comparative youngins named The Bridges, my curiosity was piqued. Although Matthew dropped off my radar screen after 100% Fun in 1995 (I wish I still had that tour shirt), I reacquainted myself with his work when he teamed up with ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs for Under the Covers, Vol. 1 in 2006.

The Bridges consists of five members, four siblings (whose last name is Byrd – I guess The Byrds is already taken though, isn’t it?) and a cousin, and actually formed back in 2002. Their big break though was when they signed with VerveRecords at the end of last year, and then soon after started working with Sweet at his own studio. Although I’m not entirely positive about this, the group might have got connected with him via the Hoff-Sweet connection after opening for The Bangles earlier in 2007.

(Somewhat completely unrelated fun fact side-note: Did you know that Hoff and Sweet, along with Mike Myers, made up the fictitious rock group Ming Tea in the Austin Powers movie?)

Anyway, as you can imagine, with Sweet’s name involved, I jumped to some assumptions about what the group would sound like. As it turns out, I was pretty much completely wrong.

Unlike Sweet’s work (at least his older material which I’m more familiar with) which really is guitar driven, The Bridges’ strength lies in the three part sunshine harmonies sung by its three sisters. Behind them is a scaled back, bordering on the edge of country twang, and a sound which connects back to the group’s stated influences: Fleetwood Mac and The Mamas and the Papas. Put simply, they’re not here to hit you over the head with their sound.

The album, Limits of the Sky, which is their big league debut, is set to hit shelves on June 10th. Also, in July, look for Matthew Sweet’s new album, Sunshine Lies.